Note, this page is in the Latin alphabet only.

Guide to Shavian Spelling

Kingsley Read, the designer of the Shavian alphabet, wrote in his 1963 Guide to Shavian Spelling that:

This Guide is an update to Kingsley Read’s Guide to Shavian Spelling, from which much of its content is drawn. In his guide, Read sought to elaborate on the Shavian spelling conventions embodied in Peter MacCarthy’s 1962 transliteration of Androcles and the Lion, and in one or two cases, adjust those conventions.

The spellings in Androcles and the Lion are the closest thing that exists to an international standard for Shavian orthography. It represents an elegant compromise between the primarily non-rhotic (R-dropping) British, Australian, New Zealand and other Commonwealth Englishes on the one hand, and the rhotic (R-pronouncing) North American Englishes on the other. The hypothetical rhotic-Received Pronunciation “accent” that results is intended to be easy for most native speakers to understand, regardless of their own accent.  

While many will prefer to spell as they speak, this Guide exists to assist those who are seeking guidance on how to use the Androcles standard in their own writing. The Guide below is as faithful to the standard established in Androcles and further developed by Read as I can make it, with the following exceptions:

• Read recommends dispensing with apostrophes for contractions, e.g. “don’t|𐑛𐑴𐑯𐑑”, “didn’t|𐑛𐑦𐑛𐑩𐑯𐑑”, but retaining the possessive appostrophe, e.g. “Joan’s|·𐑡𐑴𐑯’𐑟”, “Jones’s|·𐑡𐑴𐑯𐑟’𐑩𐑟”. No reason was given for retaining the possessive apostrophe and I can only assume it was for the sake of familiarity. Bernard Shaw himself was not a fan, calling apostrophes “uncouth bacilli”. My own experience to date has shown no loss of clarity in dispensing with them in Shavian—indeed, traditional English orthography managed perfectly well without them until the 18th Century—and it avoids the unfortunate ugliness of spellings with ’𐑩𐑟.

• I have updated a very small number of other spellings as well, in line with current dictionaries, e.g. July has been changed from 𐑡𐑫𐑤𐑲 to 𐑡𐑩𐑤𐑲, and November from 𐑯𐑩𐑝𐑧𐑥𐑚𐑼 to 𐑯𐑴𐑝𐑧𐑥𐑚𐑼.

• Read recommended spelling words with the to- prefix or suffix as 𐑑𐑫, e.g. "today|𐑑𐑫𐑛𐑱", "together|𐑑𐑫𐑜𐑧𐑞𐑼" and even "into|𐑦𐑯𐑑𐑫". These pronunciations are becoming archaic, with the Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary suggesting "today|𐑑𐑩𐑛𐑱", “together|𐑑𐑩𐑜𐑧𐑞𐑼" and “into|𐑦𐑯𐑑𐑵" as more contemporary spellings in both Britain and North America.

If you prefer to follow Read’s advice exactly on these points, please refer to his 1963 Guide to Shavian Spelling.

This Guide is intended as an assistance to those who have experimented with the Shavian alphabet themselves and are looking to begin writing for speedier comprehension by readers all over the world. But it is only a Guide, and if you prefer to modify or ignore its guidance, please feel free to do so. It is good that you are using the Shavian alphabet, however you choose to spell in it.

Guiding Principles

1. Spelling follows sound

When learning Shavian spelling, the old (Orthodox) spelling must be disregarded: Shavian spelling is about sounds.

The following examples serve to illustrate some common errors among those new to Shavian:

• Retaining silent letters. For example, notice there is no W-sound in “writers|𐑮𐑲𐑑𐑼𐑟”. The W is silent and therefore not represented in Shavian spelling.

• Using -𐑕 for a plural pronounced with a Z-sound.  The plural “writers|𐑮𐑲𐑑𐑼𐑟" has a Z-sound and is therefore spelt with -𐑟 at the end not the less frequent S-sound, 𐑕, which appears in plurals such as “cats|𐑒𐑨𐑑𐑕, caps|𐑒𐑨𐑐𐑕, cakes|𐑒𐑱𐑒𐑕”.

• Using “𐑯𐑜” for the NG-sound, 𐑙, or “𐑯𐑒” for the NGK-sound, 𐑙𐑒. There is also no true N-sound, 𐑯, in “think|𐑔𐑦𐑙𐑒”, instead there is an NG-sound, 𐑙.

• Not differentiating vowels correctly. English has approximately 12 vowels (depending on accent) but only five Latin letters to represent them: a, e, i, o, u. Shavian has letters for each English vowel, meaning that care needs to be taken when beginning to not fall back on old habits. In the phrase “catch a cat|𐑒𐑨𐑗 𐑩 𐑒𐑨𐑑”: notice that the second “a” differs in sound from the first and third: these vowels are 𐑨, 𐑩, 𐑨; and the word “a” is always spelt with 𐑩. There is a similar difference between the A-sounds in “alphabet|𐑨𐑤𐑓𐑩𐑚𐑧𐑑”.

• Using 𐑛 for past tense verbs ending with a T-sound. As plurals vary in sound, so do past tenses. Though many past tense verbs end in a D-sound, -𐑛 or -𐑩𐑛, there are many other past tense verbs ending with a T-sound, -𐑑; e.g. “mixed|𐑥𐑦𐑒𐑕𐑑, laughed|𐑤𐑭𐑓𐑑, tipped|𐑑𐑦𐑐𐑑”. Also, although we say “used” with a final -𐑛, we say and spell "used-to” as “𐑿𐑕𐑑 𐑑”.

• Doubling letters unnecessarily. Shavian letters are never doubled unless the sound is doubled: compare “announce|𐑩𐑯𐑬𐑯𐑕, annoy|𐑩𐑯𐑶” (having no doubled N-sound) with “unnamed|𐑳𐑯𐑯𐑱𐑥𐑛, unknown|𐑳𐑯𐑯𐑴𐑯”: compare “missive|𐑥𐑦𐑕𐑦𐑝” (single S-sound) with “misspelt|𐑥𐑦𐑕𐑕𐑐𐑧𐑤𐑑”.

Rules for some very common words

2. Four common words always spelt with one letter

“The”, “of”, “and”, “to” are conventionally spelt without any vowel, 𐑞, 𐑝, 𐑯, 𐑑. “For” is also commonly spelt “𐑓”, a practice recognised by Kingsley Read.

As noted below, “a” and “an” are always spelt “𐑩” and “𐑩𐑯”.

3. Spell “to” as 𐑑, but “too” and “two” as 𐑑𐑵

“To” is always spelt 𐑑; the context suffices to show when it is stressed. “Too” and “two” are spelt 𐑑𐑵. “Together, today” etc., are spelt with 𐑑𐑩-. Note, this last recommendation differs from Kingsley Read’s recommendation of 𐑑𐑫-, a pronunciation that must be presumed close to extinct today as it doesn’t even appear in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary.

4. Spell “your” as 𐑘𐑹 or 𐑘𐑫𐑼, and “our” as 𐑬𐑼

Kingsley Read recommended that “your” no longer be spelt as in Androcles and the Lion (i.e. “𐑿𐑼”). The spelling 𐑘𐑹 seems to reflect contemporary pronunciation and is edging out the acceptable alternative 𐑘𐑫𐑼. This site maintains the spelling 𐑘𐑫𐑼 for the contraction “you’re”, reflecting the compound nature of the word.

For consistency, “our” should be 𐑬𐑼; not 𐑬𐑮 or 𐑸.

Stress and Shavian vowels

5. Words of one syllable are spelt stressed, with two exceptions “a” and “an”

In many words of one syllable, the vowel sound differs according to the degree of emphasis or stress in a particular context. To avoid different spellings of the same one-syllable words, they will be spelt always as though stressed, e.g. “but” is always 𐑚𐑳𐑑, “that” is always 𐑞𐑨𐑑, “be” is 𐑚𐑰, “me, he, she, we” are always spelt with vowel 𐑰. “Sir, per” are 𐑕𐑻, 𐑐𐑻.

There are two exceptions to this rule: “a, an” are always spelt with their unstressed vowel sound, 𐑩, 𐑩𐑯.

6. The vowel 𐑩 is always stressless

In words of two or more syllables, pronunciation often changes when stressing changes, though the words have a similar root meaning: compare the vowels in “éssence|𐑧𐑕𐑩𐑯𐑕” and “esséntial|𐑦𐑕𐑧𐑯𐑖𐑩𐑤”: in “áppro|𐑨𐑐𐑮𐑴”, and “appróving|𐑩𐑐𐑮𐑵𐑝𐑦𐑙”: in “prónoun|𐑐𐑮𐑴𐑯𐑬𐑯”, and “pronóunce|𐑐𐑮𐑩𐑯𐑬𐑯𐑕". By careful rendering of the vowel sounds (and without accentuation marks) Shavian spelling will generally suggest how such words are stressed in speaking. It is important to notice that the so-called “neutral” or schwa sound of 𐑩 is unique in that it never occurs where stress occurs. Carefully compare the stressed vowel 𐑳 (up) with the unstressed vowel 𐑩 (ado) in: "Múch adó abóut Nóthing"—·𐑥𐑳𐑗 𐑩𐑛𐑵 𐑩𐑚𐑬𐑑 𐑯𐑳𐑔𐑦𐑙. Both are “short” vowels, always distinguishable by stressing, if not always and everywhere by pronunciation.

7. Use stressless 𐑩 to mark syllabic consonants, including in negative contractions

To indicate the effect of a second syllable, insert a vowel 𐑩 beforethe final consonant in such words as “little, ladle, prism, chasm, risen, laden”. This diminished vowel sound is perceptible in “prism” though absent in “prismatic”.

Write such negative verbs as: “Didn’t, doesn’t, haven’t, hasn’t, wasn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t” with 𐑩 in their ending -𐑩𐑯𐑑, omitting the apostrophe. Note, single syllable negative verbs need no such second vowel: e.g., "Don’t, won’t, can’t, shan’t, weren’t”, end in -𐑯𐑑.

8. The letter 𐑼 is always stressless

5. As 𐑩 is always stressless so too is its compound with R, 𐑼: it is stressless in the first part of its keyword, “arráy, 𐑼𐑱”. We write the same first letter in “aróse, 𐑼𐑴𐑟”, which must be distinguished from the first stressed sound in “árrows, 𐑨𐑮𐑴𐑟”. “Arríve, arréars” begin with 𐑼; “arránger” begins and ends alike with 𐑼. This letter spells the very common word-ending “-er”, which varies in Orthodox spelling of “mortar, worker, elixir, author, martyr, neighbour”—all having the same sound unstressed, all correctly spelt with 𐑼: but far too often misspelt with 𐑻,—which suggests a non-existent stress on the final syllable.

9. The compound letter 𐑻 is stressed and prolonged

This letter 𐑻 is not only capable of carrying stress; it differs from 𐑼 in being more prolonged, even when the R-part of the compound is silenced as it commonly is in Britain. “Bird, heard, herb, hurt, girl, urge, stir, cur, her,” are words correctly spelt with 𐑻; and its keyword “err”, is to be pronounced with that same prolonged vowel sound. If you pronounce it with the same vowel sound as in “errand”, or in “air”, the keyword, “err”, will mislead you.

10. The vowel 𐑳 is stressed and short

We next come to a stressed vowel which is not as prolonged as 𐑻 should be. Compare “bird” with the shorter vowel “burrow”: write “burrow” with 𐑳, Compare “heard” with “huddle”: “hurt” with “hut”: “girl” with “gull”: “herb” with “hub”. The first word of each pair is spelt with the longer stressed 𐑻. The second of each pair requires this shorter stressed letter 𐑳.

When we agree in our use of these 4 letters, 𐑩, 𐑼, 𐑻, 𐑳 we have overcome the chief difficulties of an internationally agreed spelling.

11. Final unstressed “-y”, “-ie” etc. is spelt 𐑦; final stressed “-ee” is 𐑰

According to locality or to context, every shade of pronunciation between 𐑦 and 𐑰 may be heard as the final sound in “many, city, sunny, money, lassie, simile, coffee, committee”. The constant feature is that it is in every case an unstressed vowel. It should therefore be spelt consistently with 𐑦: leaving the longer sound of 𐑰 to indicate a fully stressed ending in “trustee, legatee, employee, mortgagee.” Pronouncing dictionaries (when intelligible!) make this distinction. Here again, stress or its absence determines spelling.

12. The compound letter 𐑾 should be used whether stressed or unstressed

Write 𐑾 in “idea, Ian, Korean, real”: and write the same letter in “India, area, various, tutorial, Shavian,” despite a minor difference in the diphthong and its rhythm. Use 𐑰𐑩 where it results from prefix or suffix being added, e.g. “re-appear, agree-able”, "𐑮𐑰𐑩𐑐𐑽, 𐑩𐑜𐑮𐑰𐑩𐑚𐑩𐑤". Where R follows, write the compound letter 𐑽, in “dear, near, here, pier, arrears, sincerely”, but note the contraction “we’re, 𐑢𐑰𐑼”.

13. The spelling of prefixes follows stress

There is a great variation in the stress with which prefixes are uttered: we must be consistent in spelling them.

The prefix “un-” (equivalent to “not”) has the fuller stressing of a separate or hyphenated word, e.g. “únnátural, únobsérved, únkínd”. Spell this with 𐑳𐑯-. Note as exceptions, written with stressless 𐑩𐑯-: “unléss, untíl”, 𐑩𐑯𐑤𐑧𐑕, 𐑩𐑯𐑑𐑦𐑤.

The nouns “cónduct, cónscript, cómpound”, have a marked stress on the prefix 𐑒𐑪[𐑯]-, while the corresponding verbs “condúct, conscrípt, compóund”, will be distinguished by their neutralized stressless prefix 𐑒𐑩[𐑯]-. Prefixes listed on page 5 provide further examples of changes in stress and in spelling.

Distinguish between stressed and unstressed initial E. If stressed, it must be pronounced and spelt as 𐑧 in “énsign, émblem, élevate”. But when unstressed, initial E tends to become an I-sound in many accents; and the better unstressed spelling is with 𐑦 in “entíre, embárk, eléven”. Compare also “désperate” (𐑛𐑧-); with "despáir" (𐑛𐑦-): "Désert" (𐑛𐑧-) with "dessért" with (𐑛𐑦-). Compare "récóunt" (𐑮𐑰-), to count again, with recóunt (𐑮𐑦-), to narrate: The noun "récord" (𐑮𐑧-) with the verb "recórd" (𐑮𐑦-). Other prefixes require similar attention to the influence of stress on their spelling. This is perhaps the most challenging aspect of the Androcles standard for speakers of Australian and New Zealand English, many of whom have a “weak vowel merger” meaning that unstressed initial E tends to become 𐑩 rather than 𐑦.

Other vowels and diphthongs

14. Distinguish the vowels in Mary-merry-marry, cot-caught, and father-bother

Maintain, at least in writing if not in your own speech, the distinction between “Mary|·𐑥𐑺𐑦”, “merry|𐑥𐑧𐑮𐑦” and “marry|𐑥𐑨𐑮𐑦". This means spelling "very" as 𐑝𐑧𐑮𐑦 and “vary” as 𐑝𐑺𐑦. “America” would be ·𐑩𐑥𐑧𐑮𐑦𐑒𐑩.

Similarly, maintain the cot-caught (𐑒𐑪𐑑-𐑒𐑷𐑑) and father-bother (𐑓𐑭𐑞𐑼-𐑚𐑪𐑞𐑼) distinctions, meaning “gone, long, dog, not, what, want, was” are spelt with 𐑪.

It must be recognized that this is perhaps the most challenging compromise for North Americans to make towards an international standard for Shavian spelling. A dictionary (e.g. the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary) that indicates British, Australian or New Zealand pronunciations will help in the early stages.

15. Spell the vowel in “bath etc.” as 𐑭 or 𐑨 and “new etc.” as 𐑯𐑿 or 𐑯𐑵 according to your preference

Received Pronunciation and many other accents say “last|𐑤𐑭𐑕𐑑"; “fast|𐑓𐑭𐑕𐑑". Others have 𐑤𐑨𐑕𐑑, 𐑓𐑨𐑕𐑑, etc. Here we must admit alternative spellings until one or the other prevails in general usage. We must evidently write “new”, 𐑯𐑿, “due”, 𐑛𐑿 with alternative American spellings 𐑯𐑵, 𐑛𐑵.

16. Use 𐑫𐑼 for the diphthong and 𐑵𐑼 where the suffix 𐑼 is added

Write 𐑫𐑼 for “poor, sure, tourist, jury”; but 𐑵𐑼 in cases where -𐑼 is a separate syllable added to a root-word ending in 𐑵, such as “brew-er, blu-er”. Similarly, write -𐑘𐑫𐑼 in “cure, endure, mature”; but -𐑿𐑼 in “view-er, few-er”.

17. Spell people’s own names according to their preference

Obviously our own names should be spelt as we wish them spoken. Though any British “John” would spell his name ·𐑡𐑪𐑯, there is no reason why an American “John” should not be ·𐑡𐑭𐑯 if he wishes; it must depend on his own signature.

The optional aspirated WH

18. WH, if distinguished from W, is always “𐑣𐑢” not “𐑢𐑣”

The aspiration of WH-words, e.g., “why, when, where, whether” varies according to their context and the speaker’s accent, from an emphatic HW-sound to a plain W-sound with no aspiration at all. Writers were previously sharply divided: some followed the spelling of Androcles and consistently spelt without suggesting aspiration; others wished to indicate it. Today, the aspirated WH is edging close to extinction in many accents. Those who choose to continue to represent aspiration must take care to restore the correct and original Anglo-Saxon order of sounds (which is HW-) by writing: 𐑣𐑢𐑲, 𐑣𐑢𐑧𐑯, 𐑣𐑢𐑺, 𐑣𐑢𐑧𐑞𐑼. “Who, whole, whoop, whore” always need initial 𐑣, without 𐑢.

Common word endings

Common prefixes

Acronyms and initialisms

Abbreviations fall into two main catagories which it is convenient to name differently. Those used solely for speed may be called Contractions. Those in general use, and in many cases preferred to full spellings, may be called Conventions. The conventions, Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof, are so generally used that many publishers outside North America now omit any abbreviation-dot (full stop/period): these have become normal spellings. Having little to do with word-sounds, they are only symbols of what is meant. Corresponding Shavian symbols should be chosen with aptness and convenience. Though several correspondents have given careful consideration to the subject, the conclusion is that aptness in practice does not seem to follow any useful rules.

It is neither possible nor necessary to give an extended list of conventions, but the following are suggested for general correspondence:

Addresses

• Road, Rd. 𐑮𐑛

• Street, St. 𐑕𐑑

• Avenue, Ave. 𐑨𐑝𐑯
  

• North 𐑯.

• South 𐑕.
  

• East 𐑰.

• West 𐑢.

• Telephone No. 𐑑𐑓𐑯